Intel ATX 3.0 PC Power Supply Specification

19 years after publishing ATX2 power supply standard (a.k.a ATX12V2), Intel has released new ATX 3.0 Multi Rail Desktop Platform Power Supply specification. The main innovation in ATX 3.0 is new auxiliary 12VHPWR connector intended for next generation hardware, such as PCIe 5.0 desktop graphics cards. This connector can provide up to 600W on 12V bus directly to a graphic card. In addition, auxiliary "sideband" pins can communicate to the card the available power of PSU, and can also provide some communication back from the card to the PSU. 

For the details of the new spec, pinout of 12VHPWR connector and designation of the sideband control signals, see our review of ATX 3.0 Connectors and Pinout.

12VHPWR connector

Engineering Salaries 2020

 If you wonder if your compensation is competitive, Electronic Design magazine has published its annual 2020 Engineering Salaries report. 

Median compensation for engineers in 2020 was in the range between $100,000 and $125,000 (21%). 

37% was making $125,000 and over. 

2% was making less than $30,000 (I can't imagine an engineer would accept such a position).

36% did not get any raise in 2020, and 26% got just 1-3% raise. At the same time 22% actually got some paycut, likely because of business decline due to covid-19.

Hopefully, next year will better, especially because he vaccine is already in the pipeline.

Single Rail PC Power Supply ATXVO

Back in 2006 Google proposed single rail PC PSU approach in their white paper. It took 14 years for Intel to practically implement this approach in their ATX12VO Single 12V Rail power supply design guide. However, this is not the end of the road for PC efficiency improvement. Thirteen years ago, in this post I wrote how single-rail 12V power supply efficiency can be further boosted on the system level by updating computer hardware to allow 12V bus to drop to 8-9V. Hopefully, Intel will eventually figure it out. Meantime, here is a detailed description and connector pinouts of ATX12VO power supply.